Devin Nunes says he is investigating Brookings Institution think tank in Russia probe

Rep. Devin Nunes during a television appearance on Fox News Channel said that "we've now expanded our investigation, full-blown investigation into the Brookings Institute."

The congressman said that the two focuses of the investigation are whether Brookings, a tax exempt entity, had engaged in politics, which Nunes said that it has, and whether the institution, which receives foreign donations, took actions to benefit a foreign government.

The California Republican's remarks on "Sunday Morning Futures" came as the identity of a Steele Dossier source was recently revealed to be Igor Danchenko, who previously served as a senior research analyst with Brookings. 

"Though Mr. Danchenko visited Moscow while gathering information for Mr. Steele, he lives in the United States," the New York Times noted.

"People may remember the president of Brookings back in 2016, we know that he had given the dossier to a few people, we had that through testimony," the House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member said. "You also may remember that the State Department was involved and there were additional dossiers that weren’t the Steele dossiers, except that they mirrored the Steele dossiers. And we think there is a connection between the president of Brookings and those dossiers that were given to the State Department that mirrored the Steele dossiers,” Nunes said.

"This was the Clinton campaign's dossiers. It was the dirt, it was a phony story that they sold, not only to the American people, but they sold it and corrupted our FBI where it appears like these dirty cops were more than willing to take this information and present it to the FISA court," Nunes said.

The congressman questioned, "who were their foreign donors? And are they doing all of this not just to help the Democratic Party, but also any foreign government?"